Pete Hegseth‘s Bombing Speech

The Bombing Speech - read it as if a child made the speech! Judge for yourself 

Four Days

We’ve been bombing for four days.

That’s not very long. But it’s also really long if you look at how much bombing we’ve done. So you can’t say it’s not much because it’s four days. But you also can’t say something’s gone wrong because it’s only four days.

Grown ups are very good at talking so they’re always right and you’re never right.

We Own the Sky

We have the biggest planes. Me and my best friend Israel. We fly them over the bad guys’ houses all day. All night too. They have to look up and see us and they can’t do anything.

We’ve got B 2s and B 52s and Predator drones. I don’t really know what they are but they sound cool. We say the names loudly so everyone knows we have more than them.

“Death and disruption from the sky. All day long.” That’s what the grown up said. He sounded pleased. Like he was talking about ice cream.

We Hit Them When They’re Down

This is the important bit.

The grown up said, “We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be.”

So imagine a kid at school. He’s already on the ground. Maybe he fell. Maybe someone pushed him. He can’t fight back.

And you walk over and punch him. And keep punching him. Then you tell everyone, “That’s exactly how it should be.”

That’s what we’re doing.

He also said it was never meant to be a fair fight.

So we’re not even pretending to be fair. We’re not giving them a chance to stand up. We wait until they’re weak. Then we hit them. And we’re proud of it.

The Bad Guys Aren’t Really People

We don’t call them people. We call them terrorists and radical Islamists and adversaries. Those words make it easier to drop things on them.

If you say terrorist enough times, you don’t have to think about whether they have families. Or favourite foods. Or names. You don’t have to think about them at all.

And the Ones Who Die

Here’s what the grown up didn’t say out loud but showed anyway.

When their people die, so what.

He talked about our six soldiers who died. He said we’ll avenge them. He sounded sad.

But their people. The ones in the buildings. The ones on the ships that went to a quiet death under the water. The ones looking up at the planes, wondering if today is the day something falls on their house.

He didn’t mention them. Not once.

Not civilians are dying and that’s sad.

Not we regret innocent people are hurt.

Not even they’re dying but it’s necessary.

Just nothing. Like they don’t exist.

It’s like a video game where the bad guys disappear when you shoot them. You don’t think they had a life. You just think next level.

He talked about capabilities and infrastructure and missiles and drones. You can bomb those without feeling bad. You can’t bomb a person without feeling bad. So he didn’t talk about the people.

They’re not in the speech at all.

The Navy at the Bottom

He said their navy is at the bottom of the ocean. He sounded proud.

But ships have people in them. Hundreds of people. When a ship sinks, they sink with it. They drown. Or burn. Or run out of air in the dark.

“Quiet death,” he called it. Like it was peaceful. Like it wasn’t a hundred terrified humans not being alive any more.

No names. No sorry. Just quiet death, as if it were something nice.

Remember the Last Big Bombing

Remember Iraq. That was a really big bombing. Lots of people died. We’re doing twice that much now. Twice.

Last time, after the bombing, we stayed and tried to fix roads and schools. It was boring and it didn’t work. So this time we’re not doing that. We’re bombing and leaving.

More bombs. More dead people. Then we go home and don’t look back.

We Have So Many Bombs

Five hundred pound bombs. Thousand pound bombs. Two thousand pound bombs. GPS ones. Laser ones. We’ve got so many.

The grown up said we can do this forever. We’ll never run out.

So if some miss and hit a house, so what. We have more.

If some hit a school, so what. We have more.

If some hit a hospital, so what. We have more.

The News Is Lying

The news might show dead children. Buildings with families inside. People digging through rubble looking for their mums.

Don’t believe it. The grown up said the news just wants to make the president look bad. So even if you see it, don’t believe it. Only believe us.

What We Already Broke

Their air force, destroyed.

Their navy, at the bottom.

Their best ship, gone. The president got it twice.

Yesterday a submarine sank one of their boats. Quiet death again. Said like a lullaby.

No one’s done that since the Second World War. That was the good war where the good guys won and everyone clapped. So we must be the good guys.

Obviously.

What We’re Not Talking About

The people in the buildings. Are there people? Probably. But we don’t say their names so they don’t count.

The families digging through rubble. Do they exist? Probably. But we don’t see them so they don’t count.

The children without parents. Do they matter? Probably not, because we’re not mentioning them.

What happens next. Will everyone be angry at us forever? Will more people want to fight us because their families died? We’re not thinking about that.

Why Some Adults Are Scared

Some adults read the speech and went quiet.

Not because of the bombs. Because of how he talked about them.

He was happy.

He bragged about hitting people when they’re down.

He didn’t mention one dead person from the other side.

He said quiet death like it was beautiful.

He said death and disruption from the sky all day long like it was fun.

He said punching them while they’re down and thought it sounded clever.

Some adults called the speech morally bankrupt. That means there’s no goodness in it. No I wish we didn’t have to do this. No I’m sad anyone has to die. Just we’re strong, we have bombs, we’re using them, and we feel great.

And the people on the other side. The ones dying.

So what.

The End

That’s the speech.

It’s about being strong.

About having the most toys.

About making the other kid feel small.

About hitting them when they’re down and being proud.

About never saying sorry.

About not even noticing the other kid is a person.

About their deaths meaning nothing because we don’t say their names.

Some people read it and thought this is how grown ups talk right before really bad things happen. When you stop seeing the other side as people, you can do anything to them.

And smile while you do it.

The end.

But the bombs aren’t finished.